Deirdré Straughan on Italy, India, the Internet, and the world

Italian Slang and Swearwords

Introduction to Italian Slang

If you’re planning to live or travel in Italy, you might find it helpful to know what people are saying – much of which is not in polite phrasebooks! And sometimes it helps to be able to fire a few juicy phrases of your own. Select a letter above to go to the page of Italian swearwords starting with that letter.

Subject to revision whenever the mood strikes me. If you have something you’d like to add or suggest or comment on, go here (where you can also see what others have suggested).

I live(d) in northern Italy, so the usage described here may be specific to northern Italy, particularly Milan and Lombardy, unless otherwise noted. Your mileage may vary. I left Italy in 2008, so my usage here may not be up to date, though some of these words and phrases are… timeless.

A Note on Blasphemy

Some of these words and phrases fall into the category of bestemmie (blasphemy): taking the Lord’s (or Jesus’ or Mary’s) name in vain. Be aware that these may be considered particularly offensive by some people.

A friend of mine once struck up a conversation with an old Italian gentleman in a park. The conversation when something like this: “So, where are you from?” “Chicago.” “Sopra. [laughs to himself] No, but where are you from?” “Chicago.” “Sopra. [etc.]”

How about ‘Stronzo’? I cannot spell in any language but it was explained to me to mean solid poo, kind of like a coprolite. generally used as ‘vafanculo stronzo’.
And for ‘porco’, it always seemed to be ‘porca mesera’ around Ferrara. which I seem to remember was about the woe that comes from being a prostitute, taking the easy route in life (?) or something, but maybe that was something else.

When I was in Rome there was a lot of graffiti that said “veni, vidi, scuci”. The first part is the famous latin “I came, I saw” but the “scuci” is in Italian. I was told that it meant “I came, I saw, I masturbated” but all I can find for scucire is to “undo”, which I guess could be slang for masturbating. Can you confirm that?

I am learning quite a bit on your website here! 🙂 I love learning languages! Plus, my youth group leader from my church….he is first generation to come to America. His parents met each other over the boat from Sicily. Kinda romantic story, huh?! *sigh*. I’m not too crazy on the vulgar expressions/idioms/ etc. but I do enjoy your other features! Ciao!

“Cozza”: another word used to define an ugly girl is “Scorfano” (an orrible fish, Scorpaena scrofa, you can see a photo on italian Wikipedia). “Scorfano” can be used also for ugly men, like “cesso” (more used)

Last note about “porco” and the association with God (Dio): even if it’s largely used in the north east of Italy (especially in the form god+cane), this is not an exclamation but “bestemmia”, this is maybe the worst form of blasphemy, so it’s better if you forget it for an italian tour (catholic country) 😉

“carampana”: a very old woman but also a middle-aged woman that tries to appear younger and sexier (usually with a lot of makeup and sensual cloths)

My stepfather used to use several phrases, including “fungoo,” which someone pointed out, above.

There were others, but I have no idea of the corret spelling. Maybe someone can help me out with those. The words (and closest meanings I figured out) are:
Manja/manja lugots (Eat my … balls?)
Testameanya (balls …?)
Fotch de cotz (no idea)

What a great site – brings back memories of living in Milan 20 years ago. Looking through the C section I was reminded of The Godfather, where Marlon Brando says proudly at one point “I am a coglione”. Could be the American pronunciation of the family name, or maybe he’s just realized something.

Watching the Sopranos you hear slang words that they use in Italian. There is a name that Tony calls his son, it’s gagootz (not sure of the spelling but that’s how it sounds). What does it mean in english?

What about fessa? And mona? Too regional? I’m an Australian with Italian parents so I hear various words such as these from Italo-Australian family and friends of all regions and am not always sure if they are local terms or Italian- wide or if they have actually dropped out of usage in Italy. When I lived in Italy for one year (ages ago) I also heard a lot of “Va fa muffa” which I really liked and “Ti pari?” said in a very sarcastic tone.
A funny thing happened here in Katoomba (village in the Blue Mountains region west of Sydney) where a restaurant called itself “I Cazzi Nostri” and the Italian teacher at the local high school (not of Italian origin herself) made a complaint to the Consumer Tribunal. The owner (who was Italian) argued that this expression is not considered obscene ito Italians and won the case. Is it true that Italians do not necessarily object to that kind of language?

Elida, thanks! I had no idea what to do with that one. I guess it’s related to the northern Italian use of citrullo (cetriolo – cucumber).

Ray – Fesso/fesso I already know. Mona I’ve heard, don’t remember offhand what it means but will find out. Regional is fine – eventually I’d like to have videos with people from various regions explaining their slang, including the accompanying gestures. Just haven’t had time to do that yet!

Thanks Ray, mona is another word for fica – from the Veneto I think. I’ve heard it used in the following expression: “Mica mona, mona ti” which I think means: “You’re not a c**t, you c**t.” So I guess from your answer that it is not in widespread usage.

Great site!
But I have a question: what is the use of the word “casino”? Like what are the most popular expressions? I have found that it means also “a lot” like when “un casino di bacioni”. But what else?

M: There is an Italian word Tony Soprano uses to mean a WASP or white person? Any idea what that was? This was in Season 1, disc 3, in the episode “A Hit is a Hit”. It’s used in the conversation in which he refers to his neighbor Cusamano as a “wonderbread WOP.”
Thanks.

A word of advice about italo-american slang from the Sopranos and similar mafia related movies: that’s almost never even remotely similar to italian.

Most sicilians would not understand it, either: they are americanizations of the sicilian dialect of a century ago. Only very, very old persons from sicily would understand american-sicilian.

“Scustomato” is actually “scostumato” and is oldish italian, but more common in sicily. It means literally “dressed skimpy”, and figuratively “ill behaved”.

re: wasp person. There is no such word in italian and/or italian dialects. Italians don’t normally know even what a WASP person is, if they did not study american culture. Moreover, racial awareness is very, very low, italy being populated by at the very least 20-30 ethnic groups ranging from red headed with green eyes to middle-eastern and greek lookalikes 🙂

Some thing i noticed during one of my rereading of this slang section (that i love as i love your “look from the outside”).
Caca is usual spelling is with a double ‘c’.
Casino also stand for houses where whore work (when it was still legal in italy those places where also called “case chiuse”, closed houses).
There is another form for “preso per i fondelli” and “preso in giro” … “preso per il culo” (lit. took by the ass/asshole”), same meaning, but as you see is a lot ruder.
About “minchia”, have you ever considered translating the Sanremo song “Minchia Signor Tenente” by Giorgio Faletti ?

An Italian-American friend of mine recounts that as a young girl, she was affectionately called “my little pucaccia” by her father, who knew only a modicum of italian. He told her puciaccia meant “cute little heiny, or butt”, yet when she asked her grandmother later in life, granny was shocked and said that it means “vagina”. Any ideas on that?

“ciao” is the only italian word coming from venetian
” Sciao vostro” was common greating in Venice (meaning your slave, at your service”
“sciao” get too difficult pronounce for non_venetics so other italian say simply ” ciao”

for 38 scostumato is southern, means rude.
for 24 sfaccimme is neapolitan and literally means sperm
for 48 pucchiacca, neapolitan dialect for pussy
for 11 everytime you want to point out size you add x-ona to the word ex bambinona, in the same way you can say bambinetta, or casetta for a small bambina or casa, its called a diminutive in this case.

Hi, a question about meaning if you please….someone wrote the following on a picture of our students (studying English) but there is some disagreement about the meaning (one student thinks it could be crude?) The sentence was : un bacione a quella signora sulla destra.. Can anyone help??
Thanks!

Recently my dog had several teeth removed, and my mother-in-law, whose family was from the Naples area, jokingly called him “scugnamill'”(sounds like skoon-yah-MEEL). I would like to know the literal translation of this idiom, and if possible, the correct spelling.

Also, when I was a child, my grandfather from Campobasso and grandmother from Roccamandolfi and Avelino used to say two little nursery rhymes: one was sung to the tune of Brahms’ lullaby, and began “Ninanonn'” (NEEN-ah-NAWN); the other was a little poem about a cat:

i have a question i am not sure how to spell the word. But my grandmother and my father have always said it. I will spell it how it sounds will you please tell me what it means and the correct spelling for it?

@67 I’m positive it stays for “bene ca” which is a southern dialect for “vieni qua” which means “come here”.
It’s spelled with a “b”, instead than a “v”, because of the spanish influence in the south, in which language they often pronounce the b almost like a v.
@68 Ninna nanna has a general meaning of “lullaby”, AND is also very often the refrain and beginning lines of most of them. For more precise informations, you can browse through this page that hosts meny ninna nanne http://www.filastrocche.it/menu.asp?idCategory=21 , maybe you’ll find the exact one the used to sing to you, I hope so 🙂
@69 the correct spelling is cafone, with an f, not cavone, with a v. It means, as you said, a peasant, an ineducated rural person from a small village.

I love this. There is a lot of naples dialect and slang too. Sfacimma= bitch, but also can be used with kids “sfaccimm’, vene cca”…Finochio becomes Finucc’ (fin-ook..and that is plural (In naples to make something plural instead of using the “i” at the end of the word, the turn “o” into “u” and “e” into an “i” in the middle of the word). Cucuzza= squash and it can mean idiot or again be used as a joke. Others include:

number 68 mooshey moosheel i think would be Musci’ musciella. musciella in neapolitan means cry baby..and musci’ would be like muscia =mooshey, slow, kinda blah…mooshy cry baby. That was my grandmothers nickname as a baby…musciella…pron. as MOO-SJEEL-uh…because she cried a lot lol.

Some sicilian ones i know are Picciriddu=little boy, puttaneddu, Arussu=fag, and minchioni..which they often say as “minghioni” maybe it is “mingghiuni?”
my ex’s sister in law was from catania and she used to say “baesha” or “baescia” (bai-ei-scia) or (BUY-EY-SHA) for whore.

someone was asking about the word tony soprano used to hit…was it schiaffite?(to punch or hit) or most likely amazz’ ? (to punish.) Schiatto is another one, to damage, break, crush…sciacca/struppiato=hurt, and the other one i know would be “a spazz’ ” meaning to crush, damage, etc. “Ti spazz’ a cuscietiell’ “(ill break your legs) tony soprano usually said “ill give him amazz’ “

Can anyone give me an interpretation of the Italian expression: Oh, Madrone! or Oh, Madrona Mia! This expression is used when someone says something and it comes as a surprise or something that comes across as negative. My Italian parents, grandparents and Italian old timers used it a lot.

What a splendid, informative website ! And evocative, too: the slang-and-swearwords pages send me hurtling back to my youth, spent in the bosom of a huge extended family of Abruzzese and Neapolitan elders, all of whom [ even . . . no, ESPECIALLY . . . the women ! ] had vocabularies rich in vulgarity and obscenity.

Regarding “cucuzza”. In my family it referred to zucchini. One of my favorites was cucuzza and egg sangwitch. Slice the zucchini real thin and add them to a frying pan with oil. When they start to soften add a scramble egg mixture with a little parmesan add. After the eggs are cooked you make your sangwitch either hot or cold from the fridge, I like mine with sliced tomatoes. You can substitute bell peppers for the zucchini.

very funny….
‘pirla’ it means stupid as well as dick and also it means to turn in Milano….’pelanda’ means lazy but also slut
‘sfaccim’ in Neaples is a smart guys as well as sperm. In sicily ‘arruso’ is faggot, in sardinia ‘coddare’ means to fuck…and so on…every 50 km language changes

An Italian friend of mine always calls my 8 month old “faccine” I do not know how to spell it I am only sounding it out according to how she says this. Can anyone tell me correct spelling and what it means?
Thanks

These are words my grandmother says, I have NO idea how to spell them, and since she heard them from her mother (slang words) she doesn’t know either and thinks most are words for silly things, that she used as a child to mean other things. I will spell them as they sound to me:

@Alicia
Pee-sha-leek could be “piscialletto”, which literally refers to someone who pisses in bed, but it’s used to say that you don’t have the guts, you’re a coward, you’re a pussy.

Stu-gutz is “stucazz!”, a slang of “stocazzo!” or “‘sto cazzo!”. literally translated is “this dick”, but it is used when you’re surprised of something and it means something like “wow! amazing! incredible! Can’t believe it!” and so on.

Pasta-fazul could be “pasta e fasÃ¶” (in Milanese slang) or “pasta e fagioli” in Italian and means “pasta with beans”.

Cavone could be “cafone” and refers to a man (“cafona” is the female) who thinks to be best in the world and wants you to know it, showing you his “smartness” and his “amazing” abilities.

Fungool is “fangul”, a slang of “fanculo, vaffanculo” (which I think you know what means…)

The word gavone (GAV-OWN) is an anglicized “americanized” pronounciation of the Italian word Cafone (CAH-PHONE-AY) stressing the vowel at the end. Among second and third generation Italian Americans when saying someone is a gavone they usually are expressing that the indidual has no class. In proper Italian grammar the word Cafone simply means that a peson is a stupid jerk. In American colloquilism the phrase “ba fongool” (as seen hollered by Talia Shire in the first Godfather movie” is often obviously mistaken for the “F word” in english and again is an anglicized pronounciation of what someone posted earlier va fan culo (VAH FAHN-COOL-OH) With the closest translation being “go stick it up your ass”.
It is important to remember that there is no J, K, X, W, or Y in the traditional Italian alphabet. They have what they call foreign letters that are similar to Greek symbols-but normally they are not used. The Italian American slang term GOOM-BAH once again is a pronounciation of the Italian word compare (KUM-PAR-AY) really meaning fellow country man, friend, buddy, comrade. In the U.S. “goomba” could be a term of endearment or it could be sarcastic/offensive depending on who’s saying it, who there saying it to, and the intended context-how someone sounds when there saying along with what they’re refering to. The feminine form of this in the U.S. “GOO-MAHD” or “GOO-MANEE” 99.999% of the time is refering to a woman being someones mistress and when it is, it it obviously always offensive

Wow, great site and comments! Really enjoyed reading all these.
Does anyone know an Italian word that sounds like “coot-a- boots”, I am told it meant the horse’s ass? I was actually told its the part of the horse that crosses the fence last.
Thanks.

Does anyone know what the word that sounds like, taw-na-mas-co is? I don’t know how to spell it. I think it means something like, little trouble maker, or little kid who thinks he is tough. Any ideas? or proper spelling? Thank you

Gosh, if anyone can solve this one, we’ve been wondering for YEARS! what our Nana meant by this word: sounding out it is : “Git-a-pots-in-a. ” Nana would say it when something happened, maybe the water started to overboil on the stove and she’d say THAT word, walk quickly over, turn down the stove and stir the pasta. It sometimes sounded to us like, “get-the-pots-and-the”? Even my Aunt who’s 84 now, can’t remember what the word actually meant, but it was from Nana’s, side, the “Capotosto” side! (yes, hard-head!) I thought they were from near Bari? I can remember Nana saying the same thing after my Sis and I, about 8 and 4 years old were climbing her little apple tree in her back yard. Only BOYS did that! And she came over to the tree with her Son, my Dad and said, “Gitapotsina! Girls! now you come down out of there you’re going to get hurt!” She went ‘Tisk, tisk, tisk… I don’t know about you Son, letting your Girls climb around like monkeys there!” Our Dad replied, “this tree is nothing Mom, you should see the big maples and oaks they love to climb!” Our Mom gave our Dad the look! like really… you HAD to say THAT! now the Girls will be cooped up in here and forced to dry dishes, God Forbid they drop or break a dish! We only drove the 8 hours out there 2 times per year: Easter & Thanksgiving! Nana came East by train maybe 5 times? Our lifestyle was WAY too ‘modern’ for the likes of Nana. But it was just the late 1960’s and early 70’s? Well Nana still had the washing machine that you fed your clothes through a ‘ringer’, but not our little socks! They jammed her machine and Dad had to look high and low for a new or used part! Italian women do NOT like to part with their coveted machines, little cooking tools/devices (favorite egg beater), dishes and beverage glasses- separate ones, God Forbid! you used the same one! One type was for orange/any Juice only and one type of glass for Milk only! Nana still had her milk delivered to her front door step up until 1985! She lived not too far from “Mr. Roger’s”(from PBS)! If ANYONE can shed light on ‘Getapotsina’? I thank you very much in advance!!! 🙂
Rose

Hmm, hadn’t thought of that but I’ll bet you’re right. However, it’s probably used as a polite replacement, the way people say cavolo instead of cazzo. Not sure what she’d be substituting here, though – Gesu’, maybe?

@Rose
I’m an Italian mother tongue and I’m sure “Getapotsina” is actually “Ch’a t’possina…” (“May they…”) which is an euphemistic exclamation for some sort of surprise, shock and so. The comlpete sentence would be rather “strong”: “Ch’a t’possin’accid” (“May they kill you!”). This is not Italian, it’s some dialect from the south of Italy (say from Roma to Sicilia) which lacks of a grama and of any official spelling and therefore is to be writtten phonetically as I did.

Forgive me if I offend, but it is spelt
faccia brutte
I dont know if you were just spelling it for English speakers to read more easily. But for those who do not know, if it is ci or ce, it makes the “ch” sound, as in “faccia” (fah-CHEE-ah) or “arrivederci” (ah-ree-vah-der-CHEE). If you have a word that has a “k” sound followed by i or e, you spell it chi (key) or che (keh). It is kind of opposite to English. The H goes in where you DONT want the “ch” sound. Example “chiamo” (KEE-ah-mo).
The double consonants are also important in pronunciation. For instance in “brutte,” you pronounce it like (brute-tay). The “t” is sounded twice. Others would say it is not sounded out twice, so much as drawn out. Another way of explaining it even is that the first syllable ends with the “t” sound and the “t” sound also carries over to begin the second syllable. Sorry if I am overexplaining, but it can be hard to describe the sound if you are not hearing it. Hope this helps and doesnt offend.

Hi there, I’m trying to figure out how to spell a slang term my grandma used to call me when I was little â€”Â I think it meant “mischievous” or “mischief-maker” or “troublemaker.” Phonetically, it was “pus-ta-chone.” If anyone has any insight into how that’s spelled, I’d appreciate it! (If it helps, her family was from Alfadena, near Rome, I guess?) Thanks!

Vito,
The word “wagglio” is the phonetical transcription of “guaglione” that in Neapolitan, or for that matter, in many southern Italian dialects means “young boy”
Your answer to Cortney should be spelled “sporcaccione”. This term means litterally dirty boy or dirty minded boy.
I hope these explanations help…

Wagglio–is Neopolitan for young boy.
Che n’possa in a…. is a curse and usually the last word drifted away but meant, “May you drip blood,” and was often spoken with a gesture of the flattened hand being bitten at the thumb side. Gruesome!
And we survived!

Salut’
That expression about dripping blood was really scary when I was a boy. My Irish mother, Madiucc’ i.e. Mary , taught me about that one when I was young. My Italian side from the “old country” used many of those Italian slangs and growing up in New Jersey it wasn’t until I went to college with the”Medicans” that I realized everybody didn’t use or understand these Italian/ American words!!
Tom Melchiorre

@CORTNEY
Is not “sporcaccione” cause we use it expecially for someone who make dirty things, for example an old sporcaccione, an old man who made dirty things. I think your grandma use the word “PASTICCIONE” someone who made a “pasticcio” something messy, like kids when playing and make chaos in the house destroying fornitures or the like.
@DEBRA ROBUCCIO
I’m sure your family use the word “MADONNA!” (mud-oh-nnah) is a synonim for Mary the Mother of Jesus. We use it a lot in Italy and it’s not a curse if you said it plain without something dirty attached.
@FOR ALL
Americans with Italian root maybe use words in dialect from their city of origin and not words in Italian Language that every Italian can understand. This is because here in Italia expecially in little towns (and there are more little towns than big city here) people talk in their dialects. But can be also that when they live their homeland they dont speak a correct Italian so they can talk only in dialect or broken Italian. A little bit like I’m writing now in english, please forgive me if I made mistakes but I have flu… it’s flu time in Italia now! Ciao a tutti

Hello! 2nd generation italian here and damn proud of my heritage!! When I was a very small boy, I can remember a relative of mine, after banging their thumb with a hammer, saying something that sounded like “ma funds ah low”. Not trying to be vulger, but sincerely interested in my heratige, I was always facinated by what they were saying! Please, anyone who can shed some light on this, please do so!

My father told me of a word that my grandfather would call one of his relatives. He told me that it meant “uncle” but it “zio.” Does anybody know of some other words or phrases that also mean “uncle,” are there any colloquial terms for “uncle?”

My grandpa used to say “tu daysk” (phonetic) to me and my brothers when we were little, but we never knew or figured out what it meant. he said it meant ‘knucklehead’ by my mom insisted that it was worse. Any suggestions??

That spelling is meant to represent how the Southern Italian immigrants pronounced the word Madonna – Madonn’.
As in “Madonna mia”, a VERY common expression of, alternately, wonder, horror, disapproval, excitement, etc.

It is not “mudron” or anything like it, and certainly not “chestnut” (marrone) that people remember their relatives saying…it’s madonn’ short for Madonna, the mother of Jesus. Unbelievable that non one knows this…….duh, Italian culture is CATHOLIC!

My Sicilian Grandmother used the word Me-NAH-ga when something went wrong. Anyone know what that word means? I really appreciate the people logging in here and helping out!! it is wonderful. best regards

My southern Italian relatives used to use a word that sounded like “pizza da festa” to refer to someone stupid. I got the idea that it meant someone so dumb that he/she stood by and did nothing instead of acting.
Anyone have any ideas about this?

My Dear Nonna, may she RIP, used to say the funniest thngs.
1. She used to say, when she was angry with us, (because we could be misbehaving brats sometimes), ” You sumanabitch, I’m a gonna killa you. and we used to run away and laugh so hard and then she would too.
2. She also used to say. “Mamma mia questa via” or something like that. Does any one know what it means? She used to say it when she was frustrated and I always thought it meant “Mamma mia, what I endure ( go through)!”
3. She also said mannaggia alot, among many other things.

For Rose regarding scattozza. It is from the verb scattare which means to explode and scattuzo describes someone who flies off the handle and has a hot temper. I know because it is a nickname of my family.

My Grandmother kived on a farm in Colorado and had to go down a gully to a stream to get water. It was a hard job carrying the water up hill. She said she used to sing “WELLA – WELLA – SAL-MA-BECH GO TO HELLA” all the way down and back.

roglia= leprosy
rogliolenta is a person with leprosy
Valeria-you are right in the interpretation of the words
Scattozza in the southern part of Italy is a person worth nothing
Pizza da festa= A retarded performing clown at a public celebration

TO the woman who wants to know what “Git-a-pots-ima” means : it sounds like your grandmother (nonna) was saying “That’s crazy….” Che pazza ( my mother is from Naples and we heard the most awful hard core insults growing up)

I heard a lot of these growing up, from my Calabrese family. There are some I’ve never had an explanation for, and maybe someone with knowledge of Calabrian dialects can help. Phonetically, and over the mists of time:

You probably have the right words of “Git-a-pots-in-a. â€ by now, but I’ll just add here just in case… I live in Rome so this is what the Romans use:
Che ti possino acciecare (This is the full and correct version) “Che ti possino acciecÃ ” (This is how the Romans cut off verbs acciecare to acciecÃ “Che ti possino…” or Che ti possin’ah when they don’t finish the phrase.
As you say it: Ke tee pawssino acheckah, Ke tee pawssin’ah
Translated it is a curse but now used in a friendly manner and means May they blind you!

Im looking to get a funny tattoo wrote in Italian, My father (who I have never met) is italian so I would like to have a bit of Italy in me if you get what I’m saying lol. Im female and can be loud sometimes i would like it to be a funny / rude saying as that’s me all over. Any ideas? X

So… Im looking for a word that Northern Italians were called. There use to be a Sicilian old woman that lived next to us in Chicago that my Mother use to argue with all the time. My mother was Italian .. but she had Blond hair and Blue eyes. She said she was from Northern Italy . I barely remember the word the neighbor called my Mom, but it was something similar to “Nobbelly Gon” Something to that effect. I have looked in every Italian slang dictionary and cant find a thing like that. Anybody???

My grandfather used to call me and my cousins a word when we were younger, phonetically it sounded like bed-a-be-qua. T grandfather has passed away and we have been trying to figure out the correct spelling and meaning. He was Sicilian if that helps! Thanks!

Do you know what is the Sicilian name that sounds phonetically like Cap-ah- show-tie. Name was used years ago by Italians who refered to these people in Sicily who were of a social low economic class. I would appeciate you input on them and their proper name spelling. Thank you. Tony

Hi Tony. It really sounds like “capisciotti” or “capesciotti”, both spelling are used. But I am not sure it is sicilian, surely is a word quite common in central Italy. A “capesciotto” (singular) is a person who pretends to know everything about something, and is used in a disparaging way. I don’t think this word is related to the economy class. Ciao ciao

My grandmother (now passed) used to speak of others that were dirty as “shkoobeeta’s”. Just wondering what the real word was because this was definitely some dialect.. I can’t find it anywhere online but I am pretty sure it means little slob? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

my great aunts use the word that sounds like “brugg-a-lattah” or “bruggy” for short… i think it means something along the lines of “slob” or “dumb person”. does anyone know what italian word i’m talking about?? thanks!!

So tickled that I found this website! I grew up in an Italian speaking household, and spoke Italian exclusively until I entered kindergarten, and Dad (Sicilian) and Mom (Bolognese) had many animated and interesting discussions revolving around Italian pronunciation, as I remember! Of course I absorbed it all. The funny thing is, pretty much all I remember are the swear words that they never wanted me to learn in the first place! Dad’s (and his dad’s) version of “vaffanculo” sounded like “va fangool”. Does anyone have experience with that pronunciation, or has my memory distorted it? Thanks for any feedback!

My Nonna had many, many things to say, and not all of them so nice! The funniest thing she used to say was actually in broken English. When she was angry with us, for misbehaving, she would usually pick up a big knife or a big wooden spoon or some kind of threatening cooking-related weapon, ( just to scare us, of course) and yell. You sumanagun, I’ma gonnakiilyou! We would all laugh so hard and of course, she would end up laughing with us, with a silent belly laugh I can never forget. I miss her dearly.

So, I’m hearing stories that my Nonno used to call me his little “shpinatz”. Supposedly it means little brat or little troublemaker. I’m trying to locate the real word. Does anyone know? He was from Santa guistina I think

Someone wrote ‘schivosa’ above. Schivo is ‘bashful or shy’. They probably meant to write SCHIFOSA (fem) or SCHIFOSO (masc) which means ‘disgusting’ or ‘filthy’. Very similar word in Castillian Spanish is “Asquerosa” and “Asqueroso”. I’ve found other pecularities between Northern Italian and Southern Italian.
The hard “c” sound (for example in “capice?”) is pronounced like a “g” in the South (Sicily-‘gabiche’). To the lst poster, Daniell about her Granddad calling her “shpinatz” that could be a southern corruption of some form of the word ‘spina’, which means ‘thorn’, ‘spinoso’ ‘thorny’. Just guessing. Things get corrupted from one region to the next, from one language to the other.

LOL,
“Fungoo” does not exist, It’s “fangu” (with last long “u”) and it’s strictly naples dialect and its translation in Italian is “fanculo” short version of “vaffanculo” that just means “Fuck you” (literally go-to(fuck)-butt\ass)

MY MOTHER WAS FROM Lusilgia, Italy and there was a saying when I was a boy that described a beautiful young woman and the phrase sounded like “something tomato” i.e. pomodoro. Does anyone know of that Italian phrase? I recalled using it many times in school in a positive way but at 73 just do not recall that phrase. BILL MCGRAW CHICAGO

My Dad used to talk about his large family in Hoboken NJ eating from one big pot or bowl or platter with all sorts of things thrown in and mixed together… he called it “bah BOOK iya”. He described it as whatever they had that day, leftovers, whatever his mother got cheap at the market was cooked and thrown together… he said it meant “everything in one pot”. I’ve looked up Italian words like stew or soup or mixed salad and such and nothing even comes close. He was born in Molfetta. I’m wondering what word this really was in both dialect and proper Italian.

@Grace
“Cattivo biondo” is masculine. You probably want the feminine which is “bionda cattiva” (the adjective usually comes after the noun) or maybe “bionda monellina” (diminutive and rascally as opposed to the more ‘bad’ or ‘evil’ implied in ‘cattivo’).
What a great website! The comments are a riot!

“Casino” is a mess or a disaster. Like “che casino!” (“what a mess!”). The meaning comes from gambling house or brothel.
The Italian expression meaning “cut off your nose to spite your face” is sooooo much better than the English!
“Tagliare il cazzo per fare dispetto alla moglie” means “to cut off the dick to spite the wife.”

My grandmother used to say, in frustration, a word that sounds like:
Gwan-don (or “dawn)-moss.
Please help, if you can figure out what it means. She wasn’t the type to swear, so I don’t think it was a bad word….

The word “gabadost” is incorrect; it’s actually two words – “capo tosta”, translated to capo (head) and tosta (toast) which means “hard head as toast”, i.e., stubborn. The term is also used in the Abruzzese dialect, as well.

The origin for the term “bah BOOK iya” is a mystery to me, but my Nonna from Napoli prepared a similar one-dish meal we called “Minestra”, typically all her garden veggies, greens and tomatoes cooked together, with big hunks of home-made Italian bread.

Italian slang words are often distorted, depending on which region and to which dialect one has been exposed. The Calabria side of the family abruptly cuts off word-endings so they sound as if they end with the letter “d”. This applies to surnames as well where one relative chooses different endings, i.e., one of my uncles chose the “o”, another added an “e”, and yet another kept the more familiar “i”, which is the way my Neopolitan grandmother spelled it; as a result we’ve ended up with five different versions of the same surname. I suspect the use of slang words developed in a similar manner, yet they all mean the same thing.

The mixed dish I believe is giambotta. My mother cooked it with tomato sauce ,squash, potatoes, and left over pasta. It is more like a stew.
ciao per tutti i italo-americani in questo pagina. P.S. we hated the giambotta and joking refered to it as jukeboat, which really got my mother upset:)

Oh my…I’m laughing so hard. Haven’t seen some of this fantastic profanity since childhood. What we in the US might find offensive is “game talk” during an intense briscola. So calling someone “figlio di demonio” a recent recollection might elicit a mild chuckle, especially if a priest is the offender. There are layers to polite company that include a figlio di buona…depending upon the situation

Re ‘Bah BOOK iya’ has no corresponding word in Italian; it is strictly dialect–
it is a corruption of another dialect word, i. e. ‘papocchio’ which we in Abruzzo, where I come from, call a mixture of things (leftover or not) disparate, and not necessarily of ‘gourmet’ quality. Derivation is from ‘pappa’, which is the kind of stuff was fed babies…before the invention of baby food. Aug. 19, 2016 .

sitting outside one day, 2 guys were walking by and I heard my grandmother say, here comes those “gidrools” or at least thats as close as I can spell it. I’m thinking its another form of idiot, and my mom associates it with pickles or cucumbers. would like to know origin, spelling, and definition. Grandmother was from Naples, grandfather from Sicily

– “Anyone heard rium-bam-beed (phonetic). It’s Abruzzese”.
Maybe it is for the italian “Rimbambito” (vulg. “Rincoglionito”) = a person who lost his mental faculties.
– for Alan: “Taiti cuiun” maybe is for “Tait i cuiun” “Tagliati i coglioni” = “Cut you testicles” “biscaro” (from the Tuscan “bischero”) should mean stupid.
– I read about the daughter of Italian immigrants to Australia who knew only when adult their neighbours thought her parents hated her and her brother when kids. This because misunderstunding what their exasperated parents yelled them when misbehaving a lot. She was really stunned when her neighbours referred her they were worried about the heavy insults she got from Dad and Mom. Well, they just heard shouting “BASTARD!” while it was “BASTA!” = ENOUGH!”.the pronounce almost the same. 😉

My cousins and I all went to Catholic school, and swears coming out of us in any language were frowned upon. We were held to a strict standard (in English) and were even charged money when we let something fly in front of the parents. Our folks were all first generation born here, and had the worst, I mean the worst, second- or third-hand Italian, mostly probably dialect. Just about every single word listed here we all heard all day every day. We all lived in Harlem in the old days, and then all our folks moved out to Queens and lived near each other.

One Christmas, when we kids were all pushing thirty, we got into a discussion around the table about the meanings of some of the things we heard all the time. Well, the older generation started to translate, and we were just about stunned! I guess we just took the words as sounds, and never inquired about what it all meant.

“WHAT!!?? YOU SAID THAT TO ME???? MY SISTER’S WHAT???? IN THE WHAT????

It was the most fun the family ever had, and we were always up to some good times when we got together!

There was one word that I don’t remember learning, and it was used to disparage a man who was ineffectual, or dumb. It sounded like Shee-moo-nee-tha.

My aunt says she called her great grandfather something that sounded like ta del or ta dil. The family is from Agropoli which is near Salerno. Has anyone heard something like this? What is the actual meaning?
I used to call my grandfather granpooch. I now realize that the ending “ uccio” would have been used in “dear grandfather” or “little grandfather”, nonnuccio.

Fangu or fanculo Is really 3 words combined in typical Neapolitsn speaking.
One of the reasons Neapolitan songs are so harmonious they have the ability to combine words contarary to grammatical law.
Va Fa Cull Go Do Ass
go do it in your ass

Son nato in Italia [Bresciano]. I’ve been living in the USA for a long time.sono stanchissimo [I’m FUCKING tired of listening to some so called Italian who don’t even know where ITALY is located trying to tell me I speak a DIFFERENT Italian than their {cosi detto maledetto]Italian , which is based on a few dialect words spoken 100 years ago.L’italiano e’L’italiano all else are DIALECTS capishh[che cazzata]Italians speak Italian outside of their provinces,at home a dialect is extremely communicative,with great expressions that Italian may not convey, DIALECTS are extremely important [although fading in some urban areas] Enough
Dialect dierreha,by me.But Don’t Tell me how great your Italian is when you’re just using some analfabeta Dego/WOP words vafancool/Vai a farti inculare Ciao